Northern Colorado’s prized recruiting addition Wednesday has seen great quarterback play close up. In fact, new Bears quarterback Bryan Waggener was on the roster behind Florida’s Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow last year.
Waggener, 22, transferred from Florida and is enrolled at UNC, where he will participate in spring drills and have two seasons of eligibility left. The California native originally played at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., where he threw for a combined 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns as a two-year juco starter.
He went to Florida in January 2007 on full scholarship and redshirted last fall.
“Tebow is the guy and he’s got two more years, and if he doesn’t go pro, I didn’t want to back him up my whole career,” Waggener said. “So I took a trip up here and just really liked Coach (Scott) Downing and the rest of the coaching staff.”
Waggener also considered Delaware, Sacramento State, Wagner College in New York and Southern Illinois. Since he already redshirted, he couldn’t transfer to a Division I-A program without burning another year of eligibility. He is immediately eligible at UNC, a I-AA school.
Waggener said he learned a lot at Florida.
“Florida is definitely a lot different,” he said. “The hours we put in on film were immense. I learned huge knowledge about managing football games as a quarterback.”
Meanwhile, Downing added two other transfers and 13 incoming freshmen, including 11 from Colorado high schools.
“We continued on our plan as a coaching staff to build our program through high school players because they have more of a vested interest in the program,” Downing said. “Certainly at times we will fill holes in our program with transfer students, but that’s not what we’re going to build on.”
Incoming freshman quarterback Matthew Baca played at the same high school as Waggener in Chino Hills, Calif., and passed for 2,400 yards as a senior.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
